


Company is a Good Defence

by zenonaa



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 16:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2739638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenonaa/pseuds/zenonaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'At a younger age, I used natural remedies such as raw honey and lemons to treat my wounds, but I learned to be proud of them with time. Each tells a different story.'</p><p>Sakura and Aoi share their first sleepover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Company is a Good Defence

Yuta threw his fists up to chest-level, grin wide. “Hey, Aoi! It’s so cool that you got into Hope’s Peak.” His eyes opened fuller and he leaned forward a bit.

People often commented on how the siblings’ eyes greatly resembled the other’s. ‘You can tell they are brother and sister,’ these people would say, though not just because of their eyes but because of their smiles and zest for life. Neither parent got much of an opportunity to sit down and rest with their two children always running around. Sport clubs promised a way to get the siblings to use up their seemingly endless amount of energy but turned out to only make them harder to catch.

“In a few years, I’m gonna go there too...!” Yuta stuck up his thumb and straightened his back. He squinted one eye. “Super High School Track and Fielder, that’s what I’ll be.”

When Aoi first saw him again, her heart had raced in anticipation for the worst but his face assured her that he was okay. Aoi bathed in the light of his smile, of how he bounced on his toes, and she bathed in the excitement his fists trembled with. A smile pulled at the corners of her lips and for a few seconds, she thought everything would be okay. She thought that Makoto scared them all over nothing.

Static strummed the lines in the monitor until Yuta was a silhouette in a crosshatch of their living room. Darkness bled through the gaps, burning the lines, burning the colour into dark, desolate debris. Yuta wasn’t there, not anymore, and Aoi shut her eyes and clapped her hands over her mouth.

A minute later, she opened her eyes again. The ceiling of her private room pushed down on her chest with invisible palms. Aoi pushed her body against it, sitting up and hugging herself. Breathing loudly, shoulders heaving, she turned her head slowly and surveyed the room. Everyone’s door came equipped with a lock yet she still expected someone to break in with an axe, or for Monobear to jump up onto the end of her bed and give her an unjust punishment.

More aware of her shallow breaths, she slipped off her bed and crossed to the other side of the room. She checked the door and found it locked. Unopenable without her key. This time, she tugged at the door harder. It stayed shut. That should have satisfied her.

_“Hey, Aoi! It’s so cool that you got into Hope’s Peak. In a few years, I’m gonna go there too...! Super High School Track and Fielder, that’s what I’ll be.”_

She threw a feeble punch at the door and let her knuckles drop in jerks down it. Her arm swung back to hang vertically by her side.

What Aoi needed to do was distract herself somehow. If she couldn’t dislodge the dread in her throat, the dread that trickled into her veins, then she could at least compress it into a tight, more manageable ball. In the kitchen, there were doughnuts. They could help bring her spirits up. She saw a box earlier when she was having a drink with Sakura.

Sakura!

Wanting to take advantage of the surge of confidence her idea gave her, Aoi slipped out of her private room and locked the door behind her. One more step took her to the door of Sakura’s room that fortunately shared the same corner of the hallway. Of everyone Aoi had met so far, she felt she got on best with Sakura, and Sakura would know what to say.

Aoi pressed the button by Sakura’s door and waited for an answer.

One came surprisingly quick.

“Asahina?” Sakura’s eyebrows shot up but soon lowered. “Is something wrong?”

“Y-Yeah.” Aoi hadn’t intended her voice to come out so shaky nor for her face to give much away, which it apparently had done. “I can’t sleep. What Monobear showed us on those videos, I know it’s fake, because it has to be, but...” She blinked and felt warm tears. Her throat clenched. “But I c-can’t stop thinking about it!”

Sakura nodded, not speaking until Aoi finished rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “Asahina, do you want me to spend the night with you?”

“Huh?” Aoi’s forehead creased and she moved her hand away from her face. “You mean like a sleepover?”

“That is a suitable name for it,” Sakura said. She glanced away for a moment. “I have not attended a ‘sleepover’ before, however, so I cannot guarantee it will be what you expect.”

“It’s fine.” Aoi sniffed, smiling faintly now. Her eyes still stung somewhat. “I can’t remember the last one that I went to. I definitely haven’t been to one since I was twelve.”

If that was true, only a couple of years would have passed since then. For some reason, it felt like her last sleepover before Hope’s Peak took place a longer time ago than that.

Once both of them were safely inside Aoi’s room, Aoi hooked her little finger around her lower lip and cast her room a long, drifting look. Where would she sleep? Sakura would have the bed, of course, so Aoi would need to make do with something else. A mat? An exercise ball? The desk?

“I do not mind sleeping on the floor,” Sakura offered, as if reading Aoi’s mind.

“That’s won’t do at all.” Aoi shook her head. “You’re the guest so you have to sleep on the bed.” She lifted her chin. “I won’t allow anything else!”

“Why do we not share your bed?” Sakura suggested. Then, taking note of Aoi’s stare, she added, “I have no issues with such an act but it is understandable if you seek an alternative. My suggestion was rather presumptuous, I apologise. I am happy to go to my room to collect my own bedding and bring it here.”

Sakura started to turn toward the door.

“No, you don’t have to do that.” Aoi led Sakura to the bed, holding her hand gently, and peeled back the bedcovers. She sat down on the edge of the mattress. Her knees knocked together twice and she looked up. “It’ll be nice having someone nearby in the dark.”

“Company is a good defence,” Sakura remarked, joining her.

Aoi crawled to the other side of the bed so they both could lie down next to each other. Due to Sakura’s build, they had to keep quite close to each other or else risk sending one rolling off the bed. Not that Aoi minded the proximity. She liked it, in fact. Sakura was warm and Aoi almost burrowed her face into Sakura’s chest so she could be submerged in its heat.

“Are you comfortable?” asked Sakura, voice a hoarse whisper.

“Mm hm,” Aoi responded, bending her knees. They bumped then rubbed against Sakura’s thighs. The room wasn’t completely dark, meaning Aoi could still see most of Sakura’s internal features: her eyes, her nose, her brow and the scar across her face. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“... You may.”

“How did you get your scars?”

Sakura did not answer straight away. “I have several scars, most endured from battles. On my arms, there are scars from when I was repeatedly knocked around by a foe... The terrain was uneven. We were in the mountains and a fan of mine challenged me to a friendly duel.”

Aoi’s eyes rounded in awe. “Can I feel them? Those scars?”

To answer, Sakura cupped her hand over the back of Aoi’s and directed it toward her shoulder. Soft skin brushed against rougher skin as Aoi felt Sakura’s contours with her palm, though she couldn’t distinguish between scarred and unscarred skin. Not really.

“Another is on my chest,” Sakura said. “I received that in a different fight along with several others on my face, but many have faded to the point of near obscurity. At a younger age, I used natural remedies such as raw honey and lemons to treat my wounds, but I learned to be proud of them with time. Each tells a different story.”

The next place Sakura took Aoi’s hand to was her chest. Aoi’s lips parted.

“This one was given to me by my father’s rival. He heard I defeated my father and wished to determine that I didn’t win because of a fluke. We fought an arduous battle but I proved myself to him. The one by my ear-” She took Aoi’s hand to the space between ear and jaw. “- I received in a fight from a dear friend of mine... He is the only person that I have not yet defeated.”

Aoi breathed out slowly as she made circles with the pad of her thumb. “Someone defeated you? But you’re so strong, how is that even possible?”

“Kenichiro is an incredible individual,” Sakura replied. She inhaled, like she wanted to say more about him, but the puff of air instead dissipated. “After we leave this prison, I shall fight him again and rightfully earn the title that belongs to the single strongest fighter on Earth.”

“You’ll definitely do that,” Aoi said.

For the next two minutes, Aoi listened to Sakura’s breathing. Neither managed to fall asleep. The bedsheets rustled as Aoi adjusted her position.

“How did you get the big scar on your face?” asked Aoi.

“That...” Sakura tensed. “That did not happen in a fair fight. On one of my walks, I saw some men intimidating a young girl so I stepped in. A brawl broke out and one slashed at my face with a broken glass bottle... or a similar weapon. I do not know what it was for certain.”

“No way!” Aoi tore her hand out of Sakura’s loose grip. Her hand hesitated before returning to trace a thumb across Sakura’s scar. “What happened to them? Those guys? The girl?”

Sakura shifted her body enough so that the bed creaked. “I defeated the men, phoned the police and walked the girl home.”

“Did you kill them?”

“No, but I warned them not to attempt such vile acts again. I would not be so merciful then.”

Aoi pursed her lips together and drew her thumb once again over the scar, thinking that she would have killed those men if in Sakura’s place. Those sorts of things were unforgivable.

“You’re so interesting, Sakura-chan,” said Aoi.

“I am sure you have your own stories to share that are just as riveting if not more so. You swim, do you not? Please, tell me about that.”

“Yep, I swim.” Aoi stilled her hand but kept it on Sakura’s cheek. “Not only that but I take part in baseball, volleyball, tennis, track and field and basketball.” She grinned. “My top sport is swimming though, and I especially love relays.”

“You enjoy sports that involve a team, I take it.”

“Uh huh.” Aoi bobbed her head in agreement. Her hand slipped to Sakura’s arm and she took a moment to marvel at how muscular Sakura was. “Sports really get my heart pounding and winning with a team is a lot funner to me than winning alone. In a team, I have my friends to celebrate our victory with. One time, we were a bit behind because someone botched up their dive because of nerves, so it was up to me to help close the gap... I pushed myself until I got to the end and we came first!”

Just talking about it livened up Aoi but once the rush died away, she found herself more tired than before. Momentarily, she forgot why she invited Sakura over in the first place.

Then she remembered.

“Sakura-chan, do you think anyone will kill because of those videos?”

A notable paused preceded Sakura’s reply. “It should not be ruled out but I like to think that no one will.”

Aoi hummed out a broken yawn. “I’m so glad you’re here with me, Sakura-chan.”

“... It is mutual.”

* * *

Sakura looked down at Aoi, who was cuddled against Sakura’s chest and fast asleep.

_“Your role is to stop things from reaching a stalemate. It’d be awfully dull if no one killed anyone, you know? Very G-rated.”_

Sakura shut her eyes and tried to go to sleep as well.

 


End file.
